Homes to be affected by 24-hour vibration, noise from West Gate Tunnel works

HUNDREDS of homeowners in Melbourne’s west will be shaken by a massive tunnel boring machine digging under their feet 24 hours a day for almost 18 months, during West Gate Tunnel works.

Plans for the West Gate Tunnel project to pass through Melbourne’s western suburbs.

HUNDREDS of homeowners in the west will have a 90m tunnel boring machine digging under their feet 24 hours a day for almost 18 months.

Two tunnel boring machines will churn day and night for nearly two years underneath homes as it digs out the route for the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel.

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The machines have been ordered and will be launched from the tunnel’s northern portal in Footscray in early 2019.

The twin tunnels — 6.8km in combined length — are part of the project to build a tollway which connects CityLink to the north of the CBD and the West Gate Freeway.

But Roads Minister Luke Donnellan today revealed the machines — 15.6m in diameter and 90m wide — would travel under 350 homes.

Machines boring the West Gate Tunnel will dig under the western suburbs 24 hours a day for almost 18 months.

He said an affected home would feel vibration and noise from the machines — which will operate 24 hours a day for two years — for up to nine days as it travels on the route.

The government will assess the homes on the route before tunnelling starts and after it is completed. Mr Donnellan guaranteed the state would compensate or repair any homes damaged in the tunnelling project.

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“After the tunnel has been completed, we will come back and see if there has been movement or there has been damage. We will obviously either repair it or pay compensation,’’ Mr Donnellan said.

“This is an obligation the state government has and we will meet it.”

But he could not reveal the amount of compensation put aside for homeowners.

Plans for the West Gate Tunnel project to pass through Melbourne’s western suburbs.

Western Distributor Authority chief executive Peter Sammut said for most people the tunnelling would not be noticeable, or only felt for a short period while the machine passes underneath their property.

Four businesses will be acquired as part of the project and a further 61 would have part of their property acquired in the build. Compensation negotiations with the project authority and those businesses are ongoing.

The twin tunnel boring machines are 15.6m in diameter and 90m wide.

They are the height of Flinders Street station and will mostly dig from about 18m underground.

Million of cubic meters of spoil will come from the machines, which will need a truck every two minutes to cart away the debris from the tunnel’s northern portal site.

A naming competition for the machines will be held.